F.T. Marinetti was the founder of the Italian Futurist movement of the 20th century. His works stressed the liberation of language through the destruction of conventional grammatical and syntactical structures through his artistic inventions of words-in-freedom and lighthouse adjectives. Though he wrote many manifestos throughout his years, "The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism" is arguably the most prominent. It detailed his call for aggression, deprecation of history, glorification of war as "the world's only hygiene"[1] , and the restoration of "Latin machismo" or "scorn for women."[2] Marinetti's Futurism influenced many other artistic strands including Cubism, Vorticism, and Dada. Some related artists include Gino Severini, Ezra Pound, and Carlo Carrá.
Biography
F.T. Marinetti
Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti was born on December 22, 1876 in Alexandria, Egypt.[3] He began publishing poetry in 1893. In 1909, he published The Manifesto of Futurism in the Paris publication Le Figaro. He would continue to advertise Futurism across Europe, and was not above public displays of violence to fight those who would oppose his movement. For instance, when Soffici wrote an article in his publication La Voce, a very critical review of a Futurist exhibition in Milan, Marinetti and Umberto Boccioni sought Soffici out to engage him in a public brawl.[4]
Marinetti later came out in support of the Italian campaign in Libya, of which he became a war correspondent. From there, he wrote Zang Tumb Tuuum. After that Marinetti created the words-in-freedom manifesto called Manifesto Tecnico Della Letterature Futuristi, or The Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature. Marinetti became even more involved with politics when he allied with Ardengo Saffici and Giovanni in 1913 to publish his works that highly supported Italian participation in World War I.[5]
Later, he became a part of the Lombard cyclist battalion; he was decorated for his bravery and finally established Futurism as a fascist political party. In the 1920's and 30's, Marinetti moved to Rome and started a new phase of Futurism called Aeopittura, an artistic movement that put an emphasis on the poetry of sensation and speed of flight. He also coined the term "poesia dei tenicism', in which newly developed scientific, technological, and economic terms were introduced to poetry. In 1942, he fought on the Russian side of World War II and wrote his last manifesto "La Patriate". In 1944, he moved to Bellagio di Como and died soon after. [6]
Futurism and Politics
Benito Mussolini
On February 20, 1909, Marinetti published "The Manifesto of Futurism" on the front page of Le Figaro, a French newspaper, to help spread his ideas on Futurism. Italian Futurism embodied Marinetti's love of speed, the new technological advances of World War I, and the celebration of war as a cleansing of the earth. He put much work into the advertisement and publicity of Futurism, giving lectures all over Europe and publishing many related manifestos such as The Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature, which detailed a new way of writing he called "mots en liberté," orwords-in-freedom.[7]Fellow Futurist Gino Severini even went so far as to say that Futurism "gave rise to the demons of over-advertising and journalistic demagoguery, which came to plague artists."[8] In 1918, inspired by meeting Benito Mussolini, the leader of the Nation Fascist Party in Italy, Marinetti took another step in spreading Futurism by establishing the Futurist Political Party.[9] Marinetti and Mussolini both shared the common vision that through them Italy could be revived with new cultural and national authority. Marinetti found Mussolini to have "a marvelous Futurist temperament."[10] As a major supporter of Italy's participation in World War I, he and Mussolini organized a violent march in Italy to showcase his support, for which they both were arrested. To further the Futurist regime, Marinetti pushed for Mussolini to make Futurism the national art of Italy, but Mussolini was too busy preparing Italy for its participation in WWI.[11] The Futurist movement was later absorbed by Mussolini, leading up to the movement's eventual downfall. After 1924 Marinetti was not as involved in politics, and spent most of his time helping arrange new Futurist art exhibitions at The Venice Binnale, in Rome.[12]
Artistic Influence
Marinetti's works left a long legacy of influence over the arts. He took Futurism all over the world, such as when he visited Paris in 1912, thus influencing "Guillaume Apollinaire, Blaise Cendrars, Max Jacob, Pierre Reverdy," and Pierre Albert-Birot.[13] Though his poetic technique words-in-freedom is rarely ever labeled as such outside of Futurist work, much of its fundamental intent can be seen in other poetic movements. Imagism and Vorticism both have Futurist qualities in their need to liberate language from economical and educational standards (though Marinetti was insulted by Pound in the publication Blast in 1914, Pound later became a Futurist and a member of the Fascist party).[14] The Dada and Surrealist movements owe some of their creation to Marinetti as well, in which his first "Free-word Tactile Tables" (1920) anticipated their use of "poem-objects."[15] Glimpses of lighthouse adjectives can be seen in the works of other artists such as Gertrude Stein and Lorine Niedecker.Futurism influenced visual arts as well as written arts, in which it had a direct relation to the Cubist movement. The creation of The Manifesto of Futurism inspired the Manifesto Dei Pittori Futuristi in 1910.[16]The picturesque qualities of typographical words-in-freedom influenced the use of words in paintings by Futurist painters such as Carlo Carrá. He also encouraged war-like paintings, including Gino Severini's Cannon in Action (1915). When Marinetti took Futurism abroad from to Moscow and St. Petersburg in 1910 and 1913, he influenced the creation of "Cubo-futurism."[17]
Critical Overview
Over the course of his lifetime, Marinetti produced a variety of different kinds of works, from manifestos, poems, and plays. Much of his inspiration is credited to the French writer Alfred Jarry, whose writings portrayed the ideal of man becoming machine through the influence of technology on man.[18] For instance, Marinetti's satirical tragedy Le Roi Bombance owed a lot to Jarry's style.[19] Futurism's focus on technology and the liberation of language remains a constant throughout Marinetti's work. He even created literary terms such as words-in-freedom and lighthouse adjectives to accommodate the needs of Futurism. Here we give close reading to a couple of his selected works.
Famous Works
"The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism"One of Marinetti's most famous works is the Founding Manifesto of Futurism. It was drafted in 1909 by Marinetti along with Carlo Carrá, Umberto Boccioni, Luigi Russolo and Gino Severini.[20] The Manifesto of Futurism is an ode to life, the car, technology, out with the old, in with the new, a rumpus of welcomed chaos and anger. War-like imagery acts as a precursor to World War I and welcomes the infliction of chaos into the world. It was the first published establishment of Futurist "rules" (since there were many more thereafter). It outlines the ten primary points of Futurism to lay the framework for its development. By detailing the scene of a youth-frenzied car crash, Marinetti set up the notion that speed + technology + youth = freedom, and that all resistance to these aspects was stagnant and cowardly.
The manifesto had the intention of freeing Italy from previously established ideals that Marinetti viewed as oppressive and stagnant, such as "smelly gangrene of professors, archaeologists, ciceroni, and antiquarians."[21] The eleven points of the manifesto call for lyrical, spiritual, and physical aggression, calling the expenditure of energy a "habit" and the want of struggle a "beauty."[22] It sang praises to the automobile and men who embraced it because of its embodiment of growing speed, power, and technology. "Courage audacity and revolt" were to be "essential elements" of Futurist poetry, where it was to be "conceived as a violent attack on unknown forces."[23] The deprecation of history through the destruction of all educational institutions such as museums and libraries, and the hatred of women along with feminist ideas, were both encouraged. The glorification of war as "the world's only hygiene" was another primary point, and exemplified much of Marinetti's views on violence as necessary and beautiful.[24] "The Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature""The Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature" is a formal introduction to Marinetti's words-in-freedom technique. It details the fundamental basics of the technique as a way to liberate language from its confines of grammar and punctuation. It also called for the destruction of "I in literature" as an old, habitual habit keeping poets grounded in the past.[25] More can be read about this manifesto on the words-in-freedom page.
Apres la Marne (1919)
Zang Tumb Tuuum Zang Tumb Tuuum is a collection of poetry that recounts the Balkan War battle at the Battle of Adrianopole and really highlights not only his Futurist beliefs on speed, war, and technological advances of WWI, but some of his poetic techniques. Within the Poetic Techniques lighthouse adjective and words-in-freedom, he illustrates that words shouldn't be held captive in language like they had been by Romantic and Classical poets and authors (liberation of language), and goes on to break nearly all the rules set by those Romantic writers by not using any punctuation, repeating syllables in words to make the reader draw out the sound (like in "rrrrrails), making the letters bigger or small, repeating words in rapid succession, and using the signs "+" and "=" instead of spelling the words out. The only punctuation Marinetti has in it are line breaks or great spacing between words to elongate the feeling and meaning of the words. In one lighthouse adjective, which are encased in parenthesis, in bold and italicized) he slowly but surely spaces the words out to give the impression that words go out farther. the poem, visually is all over the place, with some words bold and others not, and some 3-word messages ( MOON (old yellow) over head) are seperated via lines that stop the text in his tracks. His whole point was to get the reader to read his text in a new way, and is well done with most of it being in a stream-of-consciousness type narration.
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^ Marinetti, Filippo. Marinetti; Selected Writings. United States and Toronto, Canada: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc., 1972. Print. 42.
Biography
Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti was born on December 22, 1876 in Alexandria, Egypt.[3] He began publishing poetry in 1893. In 1909, he published The Manifesto of Futurism in the Paris publication Le Figaro. He would continue to advertise Futurism across Europe, and was not above public displays of violence to fight those who would oppose his movement. For instance, when Soffici wrote an article in his publication La Voce, a very critical review of a Futurist exhibition in Milan, Marinetti and Umberto Boccioni sought Soffici out to engage him in a public brawl.[4]
Marinetti later came out in support of the Italian campaign in Libya, of which he became a war correspondent. From there, he wrote Zang Tumb Tuuum. After that Marinetti created the words-in-freedom manifesto called Manifesto Tecnico Della Letterature Futuristi, or The Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature. Marinetti became even more involved with politics when he allied with Ardengo Saffici and Giovanni in 1913 to publish his works that highly supported Italian participation in World War I.[5]
Later, he became a part of the Lombard cyclist battalion; he was decorated for his bravery and finally established Futurism as a fascist political party. In the 1920's and 30's, Marinetti moved to Rome and started a new phase of Futurism called Aeopittura, an artistic movement that put an emphasis on the poetry of sensation and speed of flight. He also coined the term "poesia dei tenicism', in which newly developed scientific, technological, and economic terms were introduced to poetry. In 1942, he fought on the Russian side of World War II and wrote his last manifesto "La Patriate". In 1944, he moved to Bellagio di Como and died soon after. [6]
Futurism and Politics
Benito Mussolini
On February 20, 1909, Marinetti published "The Manifesto of Futurism" on the front page of Le Figaro, a French newspaper, to help spread his ideas on Futurism. Italian Futurism embodied Marinetti's love of speed, the new technological advances of World War I, and the celebration of war as a cleansing of the earth. He put much work into the advertisement and publicity of Futurism, giving lectures all over Europe and publishing many related manifestos such as The Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature, which detailed a new way of writing he called "mots en liberté," or words-in-freedom.[7] Fellow Futurist Gino Severini even went so far as to say that Futurism "gave rise to the demons of over-advertising and journalistic demagoguery, which came to plague artists."[8]In 1918, inspired by meeting Benito Mussolini, the leader of the Nation Fascist Party in Italy, Marinetti took another step in spreading Futurism by establishing the Futurist Political Party.[9] Marinetti and Mussolini both shared the common vision that through them Italy could be revived with new cultural and national authority. Marinetti found Mussolini to have "a marvelous Futurist temperament."[10] As a major supporter of Italy's participation in World War I, he and Mussolini organized a violent march in Italy to showcase his support, for which they both were arrested. To further the Futurist regime, Marinetti pushed for Mussolini to make Futurism the national art of Italy, but Mussolini was too busy preparing Italy for its participation in WWI.[11] The Futurist movement was later absorbed by Mussolini, leading up to the movement's eventual downfall.
After 1924 Marinetti was not as involved in politics, and spent most of his time helping arrange new Futurist art exhibitions at The Venice Binnale, in Rome.[12]
Artistic Influence
Marinetti's works left a long legacy of influence over the arts. He took Futurism all over the world, such as when he visited Paris in 1912, thus influencing "Guillaume Apollinaire, Blaise Cendrars, Max Jacob, Pierre Reverdy," and Pierre Albert-Birot.[13] Though his poetic technique words-in-freedom is rarely ever labeled as such outside of Futurist work, much of its fundamental intent can be seen in other poetic movements. Imagism and Vorticism both have Futurist qualities in their need to liberate language from economical and educational standards (though Marinetti was insulted by Pound in the publication Blast in 1914, Pound later became a Futurist and a member of the Fascist party).[14] The Dada and Surrealist movements owe some of their creation to Marinetti as well, in which his first "Free-word Tactile Tables" (1920) anticipated their use of "poem-objects."[15] Glimpses of lighthouse adjectives can be seen in the works of other artists such as Gertrude Stein and Lorine Niedecker.Futurism influenced visual arts as well as written arts, in which it had a direct relation to the Cubist movement. The creation of The Manifesto of Futurism inspired the Manifesto Dei Pittori Futuristi in 1910.[16] The picturesque qualities of typographical words-in-freedom influenced the use of words in paintings by Futurist painters such as Carlo Carrá. He also encouraged war-like paintings, including Gino Severini's Cannon in Action (1915). When Marinetti took Futurism abroad from to Moscow and St. Petersburg in 1910 and 1913, he influenced the creation of "Cubo-futurism."[17]
Critical Overview
Over the course of his lifetime, Marinetti produced a variety of different kinds of works, from manifestos, poems, and plays. Much of his inspiration is credited to the French writer Alfred Jarry, whose writings portrayed the ideal of man becoming machine through the influence of technology on man.[18] For instance, Marinetti's satirical tragedy Le Roi Bombance owed a lot to Jarry's style.[19] Futurism's focus on technology and the liberation of language remains a constant throughout Marinetti's work. He even created literary terms such as words-in-freedom and lighthouse adjectives to accommodate the needs of Futurism. Here we give close reading to a couple of his selected works.
Famous Works
"The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism"One of Marinetti's most famous works is the Founding Manifesto of Futurism. It was drafted in 1909 by Marinetti along with Carlo Carrá, Umberto Boccioni, Luigi Russolo and Gino Severini.[20] The Manifesto of Futurism is an ode to life, the car, technology, out with the old, in with the new, a rumpus of welcomed chaos and anger. War-like imagery acts as a precursor to World War I and welcomes the infliction of chaos into the world. It was the first published establishment of Futurist "rules" (since there were many more thereafter). It outlines the ten primary points of Futurism to lay the framework for its development. By detailing the scene of a youth-frenzied car crash, Marinetti set up the notion that speed + technology + youth = freedom, and that all resistance to these aspects was stagnant and cowardly.The manifesto had the intention of freeing Italy from previously established ideals that Marinetti viewed as oppressive and stagnant, such as "smelly gangrene of professors, archaeologists, ciceroni, and antiquarians."[21] The eleven points of the manifesto call for lyrical, spiritual, and physical aggression, calling the expenditure of energy a "habit" and the want of struggle a "beauty."[22] It sang praises to the automobile and men who embraced it because of its embodiment of growing speed, power, and technology. "Courage audacity and revolt" were to be "essential elements" of Futurist poetry, where it was to be "conceived as a violent attack on unknown forces."[23] The deprecation of history through the destruction of all educational institutions such as museums and libraries, and the hatred of women along with feminist ideas, were both encouraged. The glorification of war as "the world's only hygiene" was another primary point, and exemplified much of Marinetti's views on violence as necessary and beautiful.[24]
"The Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature""The Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature" is a formal introduction to Marinetti's words-in-freedom technique. It details the fundamental basics of the technique as a way to liberate language from its confines of grammar and punctuation. It also called for the destruction of "I in literature" as an old, habitual habit keeping poets grounded in the past.[25] More can be read about this manifesto on the words-in-freedom page.
Zang Tumb Tuuum is a collection of poetry that recounts the Balkan War battle at the Battle of Adrianopole and really highlights not only his Futurist beliefs on speed, war, and technological advances of WWI, but some of his poetic techniques. Within the Poetic Techniques lighthouse adjective and words-in-freedom, he illustrates that words shouldn't be held captive in language like they had been by Romantic and Classical poets and authors (liberation of language), and goes on to break nearly all the rules set by those Romantic writers by not using any punctuation, repeating syllables in words to make the reader draw out the sound (like in "rrrrrails), making the letters bigger or small, repeating words in rapid succession, and using the signs "+" and "=" instead of spelling the words out. The only punctuation Marinetti has in it are line breaks or great spacing between words to elongate the feeling and meaning of the words. In one lighthouse adjective, which are encased in parenthesis, in bold and italicized) he slowly but surely spaces the words out to give the impression that words go out farther. the poem, visually is all over the place, with some words bold and others not, and some 3-word messages ( MOON (old yellow) over head) are seperated via lines that stop the text in his tracks. His whole point was to get the reader to read his text in a new way, and is well done with most of it being in a stream-of-consciousness type narration.
External Links
Famous Artist Quotes
Futurist Cooking
Article on Futurism and War
Audio Readings
References
Images are used in accordance with fair use practices.If you hold copyright to an image, and do not agree that its use accords with fair use practices,please contact the wiki's creator and organizer.